The least reached

There is still a very real cross-cultural mission challenge to the North American church today. There are still millions of people who have never had the opportunity to choose Jesus because they do not even know about Him.
The term “least reached” for us includes both unreached people groups (UPGs) and unengaged unreached people groups (UUPGs). According to the Joshua project, unreached peoples have ”less than 2% Evangelical Christian and less than 5% Christian Adherents.“* Unengaged unreached people meet the unreached criteria and have no one even trying to reach them with the transformational love of Jesus.
You can learn more about UPGs and UUPGs at Josuha Project and Finishing the Task. The important thing is to do something. Become part of the mega-mission movement Call2All. Adopt a people group.Start praying for a certain UUPG in your prayer meeting, bible study group, sunday school class, or youth group. Learn about them. Go on a trip. Get moving. You don’t have to have a perfect plan all worked out before you do something. Be part of God’s plan!

The 10/40

Where are these UPGs and UUPGs? Who are our neighbours? What is going on around the planet? Where is the greatest need? Who needs to know love? What is God doing and how can I get involved? It is important for believers to look at the world and to know the world we live in.
The 10/40 Window is one tool that can help us to answer these questions and then to take action. It is a term popularized by missions strategist Luis Bush in 1990. It was his wife who suggested calling it a window, as in "this is a window of opportunity." The 10/40 Window stretches from 10 to 40 degrees north latitude (north of the equator) and from North Africa to Japan. Today, missions strategists see it is a box with fuzzy edges. Many of the defining characteristics of the 10/40, such as poverty, human rights abuses, little access to fresh water, and least reached groups of people, are found both inside the Window as well as along many of the edges of the Window.
The 10/40 contains 95% of the world's unreached people, 85% of the poorest of the poor, and is the seat of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. There has been some controversy over associating poverty and the lack of the Gospel. Still others are exploring the connection between economics and religious belief in items such as The Book That Transforms Nations by Loren Cunningham, articles in The Economist and on-going studies at Harvard University. The fact remains that there is great need and we as believers are instructed to feed the hungry, help the poor, and defend the widows and orphans.
The 10/40 Window is not the end all be all, but one very useful tool that helps us to clearly see the greatest need. Other maps or paradigms are 4k and worlds A, B, C. Every believer can use this tool to help them to love God and love people more and more.
Right now, you can make a difference in the 10/40! Pray. Choose a country, a province/state, or a people group and pray for them. Go. Give a couple of weeks and share your love and relationship with Jesus face-to-face with the people of the 10/40. Send others. You can help send someone who is going to the 10/40 short or long term. Also, look local and ask yourself who is a 10/40 newcomer in your community that you could befriend and help.
The 10/40 is one tool that can help believers begin to see God's glory cover the earth and every people worshipping Him.